{"id":231823,"date":"2019-07-06T20:31:41","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T00:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/?p=231823"},"modified":"2019-07-06T20:31:41","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T00:31:41","slug":"india-crypto-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/news\/india-crypto-ponzi-scheme","title":{"rendered":"India: Authorities Bust Group Involved in Crypto Ponzi Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"

The hostility of India\u2019s government towards the crypto industry hasn\u2019t stemmed the growth of scams, and at this point, it\u2019s worth wondering when the government will reach its breaking point.\u00a0Early on Thursday, news platform Times of India published revealed<\/a> that India\u2019s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has successfully apprehended four citizens for masterminding a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the suspects- named ijay Prajapati, Dhiraj Patel, Kamruddin Syed, and Ashiq Shaikh- were the creators of the KBC Coin, a crypto asset which, so far, hasn\u2019t proved to be worth the name \u201ccryptocurrency\u201d in any way.<\/p>\n

The idea behind the KBC Coin was launched by Lashkariya about two years ago. During that time and about six months ago when the coin eventually launched, the promoters had been successful in promoting and luring unsuspecting investors to participate in their scam.<\/p>\n

It launched six months ago, but the investors have been made to rue their investments. While no one expected it to drive volumes, since it\u2019s not listed on popular cryptocurrency exchanges<\/a>, it\u2019s performance has been terrible. KBC Coin had performed so poorly that it\u2019s price has remained stagnant since it launched.\u00a0Now, that\u2019s some cause for concern.<\/p>\n

The publication clarified that at the asset\u2019s launch, a single token was sold for 10 Paisas (around 10 cents to the dollar). The operators allegedly told investors that they would see incredible gains in value, going as far as saying that the token could make an astronomical rise to 10 Rupees.<\/p>\n

An anonymous official at the CID revealed that the scam operators invested heavily in marketing. Lashkariya reportedly opened offices in three locations to promote the coin, and the official pointed out another individual named Baljeetsingh Lashkariya, who was responsible for promoting the asset via a pyramid scheme.<\/p>\n

In part, the official said, \u201cHe promised that the first investor in the chain would get an incentive from the last circle of investors. This offer played a major role in bringing more investors to the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Per the report, Baljeetsingh Lashkariya and a separate promoter named Mohan Patel are still at large.\u00a0The scam is a blow to the crypto market in India. The country is still battling with the legal status of crypto assets and the legitimacy of Bitcoin Wallets<\/a> operators and exchanges to operate in the country.<\/p>\n

A few months ago, the Reserve Bank of India unveiled a regulatory sandbox, which essentially allows for testing certain technologies and innovations on a small number of consumers over a specified time period. However, while blockchain technology did get included in the sandbox, crypto assets and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) were left out.<\/p>\n

The Economic Times also reported in April that various departments of the Indian government were considering the imposition of the \u201cBanning of Cryptocurrencies and Regulation of Official Digital Currencies Bill 2019\u201d draft bill, which, for all intended purposes, would outrightly ban digital assets in the country.<\/p>\n

While many lobbying groups are reportedly advocating for better crypto freedom in the country, the increasing incidence of scams would definitely not help matters. Times of India reported that this is the sixth scam reported in the past 24 months, and if things continue at this pace, an outright ban suddenly seems feasible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hostility of India\u2019s government towards the crypto industry hasn\u2019t stemmed the growth of scams, and at this point, it\u2019s worth wondering when the government […]<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1770,"featured_media":204950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7596],"tags":[8754,6009,8539],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIndia: Authorities Bust Group Involved in Crypto Ponzi Scheme - InsideBitcoins.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Indian authorities have arrested a group allegedly involved in the creation and promotion of a crypto ponzi scheme that defrauded investors.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231823\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"India: Authorities Bust Group Involved in Crypto Ponzi Scheme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Indian authorities have arrested a group allegedly involved in the creation and promotion of a crypto ponzi scheme that defrauded investors.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"InsideBitcoins.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-07T00:31:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Bitcoin-Indian-Rupee.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1154\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jimmy Aki\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jimmy Aki\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231823#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231823\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jimmy Aki\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#\/schema\/person\/a66ff7827d8bed054aa6be4e9d8c1dad\"},\"headline\":\"India: Authorities Bust Group Involved in Crypto Ponzi Scheme\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-07T00:31:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-07T00:31:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231823\"},\"wordCount\":554,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Bank of India\",\"India\",\"Scam\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Breaking Crypto News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231823#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231823#primaryimage\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231823\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/insidebitcoins.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231823\",\"name\":\"India: Authorities Bust Group Involved in Crypto Ponzi Scheme - 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